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There is no doubt that biotechnology research offer great potential for sustainable development. Although advanced biotechnology-based research is costly, it is still the sole hope for developing countries worldwide to catch. Developing countries including Mongolia, suffer to some extent from the same agricultural and health problems having the same dreams and hopes. On the other hand, International organizations and developed world would like to support and to develop real partnership for the benefits of the both sides. Fortunately most of these countries still have some advantages to benefit from gene revolution, such as high degree of biodiversity, very rich natural genetic resources and highly qualified human resources received their training and postgraduate education abroad. This paper will discuss state of going biotechnology-based research at National University of Mongolia. The topics of the paper will cover plant biotechnology, food
biotechnology, animal biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, biodiversity and bioactive compounds from extracted from natural plants and animals and bioinformatics. The National University of Mongolia (originally Mongolia State University) was established in 1942. Department of Biology (currently Faculty of Biology) was one of the first departments at the NUM and has been recognized as a Centre for research and education in Biological Science. Currently, Faculty of Biology has 9 departments including Zoology, Botany, Biochemistry and Bioorganic chemistry, Microbiology, Genetics and Molecular biology, Biophysics, Ecology, Forestry and Ecotourism. Education and research in the field of Molecular biology and biotechnology were started at the Faculty of Biology since 1980. Our researches were mostly concentrated at the following Departments: Biochemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry, Microbiology, Genetics and Molecular Biology and Biophysics. Main research topics are 1) biochemistry and biotechnology of Mongolian traditional fermented dairy products, 2) biologically active compounds
from Mongolian endemic medicinal and useful plants and animals, 3) enzymology, and 4) biotechnology of plants and microorganisms. One of the main research areas of our faculty is study of dairy products. Mongolians has great traditional experience for the production and conservation of fermented dairy products. Most of these products and their production technologies are exclusively endemic to the country of origin. Traditionally Mongolians are consuming the dairy products not only as a food but also as complete nutrient and medicinal remedies. As a result of our research we have maintained a collection of yeasts and Lactic Acid Bacteria from dairy products and now collection contains more than 200 monocultures of yeasts and bacteria isolated from fermented dairy products. Now, the faculty researchers are working on the isolation and identification of bacteriocin, ICE inhibitor producing Lactic Acid Bacteria and doing partial purification and
characterization of the bioactive peptides. In terms of plant biochemistry and biotechnological studies we are mostly conducting studies of medicinal plants used in Mongolian traditional medicine, cell-tissue culture of rare and endangered plant species of Mongolia and special attention given to the trees and shrubs of desert and semi-desert areas. Recently we are begun to conduct researches on molecular evolution and molecular phylogeny of Mongolian mammals. We have started project named as “Molecular biological study of the eukaryote genome of Mongolian mammals”. The project aims to initiate and carry out molecular characterization of Mongolian mammals to understand their genetic structure and taxonomic status. In order to establish eukaryotic genome resource bank, we are collecting samples from different species and by now we have collected samples from 120 individuals of about 20 species. We have started investigating
mitochondrial DNAdiversity analyses by DNA sequencing for different taxonomically informative domains of mitochondrial DNA such as control region, 16S rRNA and cytochrome b. In addition to the sequencing, we are also using restriction fragment length polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite analyses to study molecular phylogenetics of Mongolian mammals. At the Department of Microbiology we started investigation of soil microorganisms and their usage in tree breeding, bioremediation and soil improvement. Bioinformatics is a new emerging research area in Mongolia. In 2009 we developed Bioinformatics curriculum for bachelor and master students which will be taken in activity at the Department of Biophysics. New helix fitting software named “HELFIT” has been developed for the analysis of protein secondary structure and structural analysis of solenoid proteins. HELFIT program is also used for analysis of DNA, RNA structure and 3D structure prediction of solenoid proteins for the purpose of solenoid proteins structural genomics. Department of Forestry have started to
establishment of Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) plantation and researches on medicinal, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical usage of fruit and berries.